Lessig and Demand Progress: Demand justice for our friend Aaron Swartz

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Friday January 18, 2013 · 7:22 AM PST

2013/01/18 · 07:22

LETTER ISSUED BY DEMAND PROGRESS AND HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR LAWRENCE LESSIG:

We spent Tuesday burying and mourning our friend Aaron. We're sad, we're tired, we're frustrated -- and we're angry at a system that let this happen to Aaron. Now we want to set upon honoring his life's work and helping to make sure that such a travesty is never repeated.

Click here to demand justice for our friend Aaron Swartz.

We and Aaron's friends and family have been in touch with lawmakers to ask for help, and several of them -- who've worked with Aaron and Demand Progress on SOPA and other issues -- are beginning to take action. We're asking them to help rein in a criminal justice system run amok. Authorities are encouraged to bring frivolous charges and hold decades of jail time over the heads of people who are accused of committing victimless crimes.

1) Representative Zoe Lofgren has introduced what's been named "Aaron's Law." It would fix a key part of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is one of the statutes under which Aaron was indicted. We need to pass Aaron's Law AND further amend the CFAA.

The CFAA makes violations of a website's terms of service agreement or user agreement -- that fine print you never read before you check the box next to it -- a FELONY, potentially punishable by many years in prison. That's how over-broad this dangerous statute is, and one way it lets showboating prosecutors file charges against people who've done nothing wrong.

Aaron's Law would decriminalize violating these agreements: They're essentially contracts, and as with other contracts, disputes about them should be settled in civil courts rather than in out of control criminal trials under threat of decades of prison time.As currently written, Aaron's Law alone wouldn't have saved Aaron -- there is still more to do to make sure that victimless computer activities are not charged as felonies -- but this is a solid start that we can pass now and it's a law he wanted to change. Then we'll keep pushing forward.

2) Additionally, we asked Congressman Darrell Issa -- who controls the powerful Oversight Committee -- to open an investigation into prosecutorial misconduct in Aaron's case. Amazingly, he's already responded and is dispatching a staffer to investigate the U.S. Attorney who was pressing charges against Aaron.

We want the inquiry to proceed, and to be broadened to include a more thorough investigation into rampant over-prosecution of alleged crimes with no victims -- as in the case of what Aaron was accused of. And we want those who abused their power to be held to account.

We loved Aaron -- so many people loved Aaron -- and his death is tragic. We and others who were close to him are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, and the calls for justice. Thank you for joining us in that fight.

Click here to demand justice for our friend Aaron Swartz.

Day of Action Monday: Big Business Trying to Undermine Your Right to Resell Stuff You Own

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday October 25, 2012 · 5:25 AM PDT

2012/10/25 · 05:25

Million-member Internet activism group Demand Progress is gearing up for a day of activism on Monday in concert with the Supreme Court's hearing of the Kirtsaeng v John Wiley & Sons case.

This vastly under-reported case has tremendous implications for millions of Americans and could undermine our ability to use sites like Ebay and Craigslist -- or even hold old-fashioned garage sales. Monday presents a key opportunity to make sure more people know about the case, and put pressure on Congress before Big Business and their brigade of lobbyists convince lawmakers to side against the interests of average Americans. They want to wrest from us the ability to resell things we've purchased if they happen to have been manufactured abroad, in whole or in part.

Demand Progress runs the website YouveBeenOwned.org, which more than 100,000 people have used to email their lawmakers in support of the First Sale Doctrine's application to all products -- the notion that Americans should be able to resell the things they own.

Via said site, Demand Progress is urging Internet users to post ribbons and ball-and-chain icons on their websites on Monday to alert their visitors to the Kirtsaeng case and its implications, and to encourage them to contact Congress -- as of Thursday morning, more than 2,000 sites had signed up to do so.

The case pits public interest groups and retailers against manufacturers, Hollywood, publishers, and the recording industry, as SCOTUS decides if we have the right to resell many of the things we own, from books to iPods to our cars and homes, as the Court will determine if and how the First Sale Doctrine applies to products made abroad: Business interests want to control their products entry into, and resale in, domestic markets.

There's something viscerally wrong about losing the ability to resell things that you own -- and dare I say, un-American. But it's easy to make a specifically progressive case in support of the First Sale Doctrine: If manufacturers hold more rights over products the make abroad, that increases the incentive to off-shore, which is bad for labor and the environment. Undoing or limiting the First Sale Doctrine would undermine reuse and recycling efforts and make it harder to build any sort of alternative, local, less-consumerist, less growth-based economy.

No matter how the Court rules, activists expect to fight a legislative battle come winter, as the losing party is likely to push legislation to reverse the Court's decision.

NDAA: Hedges, Ellsberg et al Take To Social Media Today To Fight Indefinite Detention Law

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 27, 2012 · 5:03 AM PDT

2012/09/27 · 05:03

With a few noble exceptions, the mainstream media has failed to give the critical issue of "indefinite detention" the attention it deserves. Today we launch an effort to "hack" around them, and make sure Americans know about this extraordinary threat to our civil liberties and the Obama administration's attempts to fight a federal court's finding that indefinite detention is unconstitutional.

Lawyers, plaintiffs, and civil liberties advocates involved in the Hedges v. Obama lawsuit and other activism to fight the NDAA - otherwise known as the "indefinite detention" law -- are taking to social media today in two ways.

1) Several will participate in an "Ask Me Anything" conversation today, Thursday, at noon on the website Reddit. All are welcome to participate at: http://www.reddit.com/...

Confirmed participants include Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, and Revolution Truth director Tangerine Bolen (all plaintiffs); lawyers Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer; and Demand Progress executive director David Segal.

2) Demand Progress has launched a detain-your-friend Facebook app. It allows users to spread the alarm about indefinite detention by "detaining" their friends Facebook profile pictures -- overlaying prison bars upon them and posting info to their Facebook walls about indefinite detention and how to fight it. Internet users can visit DefeatNDAA.com to "detain" their friends.

Indefinite detention was passed as part of the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act and signed into law by President Obama on New Years Eve, 2011. It would allow the military to detain civilians -- even Americans -- indefinitely and without charge or trial.

The provision being fought (Section 1021 of the NDAA) suspends due process and seriously threatens First Amendment rights. Judge Katherine Forrest ruled entirely in favor of the plaintiffs earlier this month, calling Section 1021 completely unconstitutional and granting a permanent injunction against its enforcement..

The Obama DOJ has vigorously opposed these efforts, and immediately appealed her ruling and requested an emergency stay on the injunction - claiming the US would incur "irreparable harm" if the president lost the power to use Section 1021 - and detain anyone, anywhere "until the end of hostilities" on a whim. This case will probably make its way to the Supreme Court.

Judge Strikes Down Indefinite Detention: Tell Obama To Stop Supporting This Wretched Law

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday September 12, 2012 · 10:57 PM PDT

2012/09/12 · 22:57

We just won the lawsuit against Obama et al over the indefinite detention provisions of the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. These provisions represented a blatant violation of due process and First Amendment rights, and plaintiffs argued that they were already having a chilling effect on journalists and activists.

The NDAA included a clause which afforded the military the power to detain civilians — even Americans — indefinitely, without charge or trial, if they are accused of certain anti-state crimes or are accused of “substantially supporting” those accused of said crimes or forces associated therewith. If that sounds tortuous and nebulous it’s because it is: What the heck does “substantially support” or “associated force” even mean?

You can urge Obama not to appeal the ruling by clicking here.

In a sweeping 112-page ruling (which I’ve not yet read in full) Judge Katherine Forrest issued a permanent injunction against the use of such powers. Here’s Reuters:

A federal judge made permanent on Wednesday her order blocking enforcement of a U.S. law’s provision that authorizes military detention for people deemed to have “substantially supported” al Qaeda, the Taliban or “associated forces.”

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan had ruled in May in favor of non-profit groups and reporters whose work relates to conflicts in the Middle East and who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December.

Plaintiffs include Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Tangerine Bolen, and others; Demand Progress and RevolutionTruth members have raised more than $20,000 to support the lawsuit and used it to pressure lawmakers to revoke the provions in question. We lost a relatively narrow vote in the House a few months ago, and the Senate will take up amendments to end indefinite detention in coming weeks.

We're hoping the Senate will actually take this finding of unconstitutionality to heart and explicitly revoke the codification of the indefinite detention authority when the NDAA gets a vote in coming weeks.

This ruling required great fortitude on the part of Judge Forrest: She was appointed by Obama just last year. After initially expressing concerns about the provisions in question — because they infringed on certain executive power, not because of all of the reasons above — Obama has consistently supported and defended them. He signed them into law under cloak of darkness on New Year’s Eve and has aggressively defended them in court.

This’ll probably get appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court -- but you can click here to urge Obama to stop protecting this awful law.

NDAA: Indefinite Detention Vote Is Tomorrow. Please Email Congress Now

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 16, 2012 · 3:20 PM PDT

2012/05/16 · 15:20

Nearly 200,000 Demand Progress members have urged Congress to end indefinite detention in front of TOMORROW'S vote to reform the provisions of last year's National Defense Authorization Act that could allow the military to detain civilians indefinitely, without charge or trial.

Congressmen Adam Smith and Justin Amash will put forth an amendment to make it clear that the military does not have the power to arrest and indefinitely detain civilians without charging or trying them.

You can urge your member of Congress to vote for the amendment by clicking here.

Ideologues on both sides of the aisle are up in arms about these provisions, and we have a real chance to knock them out through an alliance of libertarian-leaning Republicans and progress Democrats.

For more info, you can take a look at this article published in the Hill this week by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Tenth Amendment Center.

This week, Congress has the opportunity to join a rare bipartisan chorus rising across the country. An amendment to the NDAA, sponsored by Representatives Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.), has galvanized everyone from Occupiers to Tea Partiers, united by the specter of domestic military detention without trial....

Why the fuss?
Because the NDAA’s detention provisions effectively suspend due process. Sections 1021 and 1022 allow the military to detain anyone whom it -- without judicial review -- decides “substantially support[s]” al Qaeda or “associated forces” until the “end of hostilities.”

CISPA Is The New SOPA: Help Kill It This Week

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday April 17, 2012 · 7:21 AM PDT

2012/04/17 · 07:21

CISPA is the new SOPA. Today marks the opening of a week of action in opposition to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which would obliterate any semblance of online privacy in the United States. It's up for a vote later this month.

CISPA demolishes existing barriers between the government and the private sector -- and between government agencies, including the military -- that restrict casual data sharing. It would effectively allow information about Americans' use of the Internet to slosh back and forth uninhibited.

The Center for Democracy and Technology says, "CISPA has a very broad, almost unlimited definition of the information that can be shared with government agencies and it supersedes all other privacy laws."

Corporations like Facebook could share information about their users with other corporations and the government, so long as it's justified by a concern fitting the overly broad conception of cybersecurity threats: alleged piracy or the "degradation' of a company's network, for instance. That data could then be used towards nearly any end, from surveillance to hocking products to Internet users.

And according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, CISPA would accomplish much of the job that Hollywood and other content owners couldn't get done off via SOPA earlier this year:

An ISP could even interpret this bill as allowing them to block accounts believed to be infringing, block access to websites like The Pirate Bay believed to carry infringing content, or take other measures provided they claimed it was motivated by cybersecurity concerns.

You can join nearly 90,000 other Internet users by using Demand Progress's action page to urge your lawmakers to oppose CISPA.

Does Facebook really care about Internet users' rights?

CISPA represents the first notable rift within the coalition of organizations and businesses that helped lead the charge against Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA's opponents came together in a kumbaya moment, with almost anybody who cares about the Internet -- as user, activist, or profiteer -- lining up against the bill.

Facebook struck an aggressive posture in opposition to SOPA, and at the time Mark Zuckerberg asserted:

The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet.

He was right, but it wasn't hard for Facebook to oppose SOPA: Its passage would have hurt Facebook's bottom line -- and probably forced it to alter basic business practices -- by forcing it to aggressively to police alleged piracy.

And now the profit motive is causing Facebook to support CISPA, at the expense of its users, because it would relieve certain regulatory burdens and provide attractive immunities for the company.

Internet users were able to push GoDaddy to withdraw its support of SOPA. Now it's time to make sure Facebook knows we're furious:

Over the last few days more than 150,000 people have signed Demand Progress's open letter to Facebook, and called Mark Zuckerberg out on his hypocrisy -- please join them by clicking here.

Update On Stop Online Piracy Act: This Week's Activism Plan In Front Of Thursday Vote

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday December 11, 2011 · 2:24 PM PST

2011/12/11 · 14:24

ACTION NEEDED THIS WEEK: JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT (SEE BELOW) -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS, POST TO LISTS, BLOGS, ETC.

*Please email David Segal at David@DemandProgress.org if you want to receive direct updates as action pages and tools go live

This Saturday, more than 70 representatives from leading tech companies and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum participated in a meeting to coordinate action against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The meeting, which included leaders from Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter and Reddit was remarkable for the array of participating organizations and its focus on how to mobilize to inspire millions of Americans to take action to tell Congress that this bill is deeply flawed.

Representative Zoe Lofgren opened the meeting with an overview of the current state of the legislation, emphasizing the need for Americans to call their Representatives EARLY THIS WEEK to voice their strong discontent with the bill: It is slated for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee on THURSDAY.

Please read the below to find out how you can get involved. If we're going to beat SOPA -- and future bills like it -- we must expand the network of involvement fast.

For more information on the bill, please read this piece by Rebecca MacKinnon which recently ran in the New York Times.

Action Plan: 11/15 House Judiciary SOPA Markup

The most important thing to know:
We have the best chance of making a difference on this bill if we can push hundreds of thousands of calls into the House of Representatives Monday through Thursday. This is because it's crucial our voices are heard BEFORE the bill enters the mark-up (voting) stage in the House Judiciary committee.

Here's what you can do:

1) Use whatever means necessary to drive users to our central portal -- FightForTheFuture.org -- where people will be prompted to call their House Representative and given the tools to know what to say and how to say it.

2) Spread our censorship tools -- please visit AmericanCensorship.org to find a tool that lets anyone redact portions of a tweet, Facebook post, blog post, etc. The redaction will be a link back to the AmericanCensorship.org page to drive calls.

3) Drive people to IWorkforTheInternet.org to post pictures of themselves to tell the world that the Internet is an engine of jobs growth in this country.

4) Develop your own tools to drive calls to the U.S. House of Representatives (calls to the Senate are not a priority this week) -- please let us know if you need any assistance with scripts or other materials to support these tools.

5) Forward this email to anybody and everybody who is in a position to help (sites that might participate, activist orgs, reporters and bloggers, etc)

FACT SHEET ABOUT THE LEGISLATION (SOPA)

SOPA's provisions would directly:

1) Undermine the DMCA safe harbor by forcing sites to start policing user-generated content BEFORE it gets uploaded, or risk being shut down for facilitating infringement.

2) Give the government new powers to block Americans' access to domains that are accused of facilitating copyright infringement.

3) Ban others from linking back to said sites, and ban search engines from listing them in the indexes.

4) Make it a felony for people to upload unlicensed content, punishable by 5 years in prison. (Think background music, cover bands, karaoke vids, etc.)

The consequences we predict are that SOPA will:

1) Kill existing and prospective jobs;
2) Stifle innovation;
3) Undermine web security -- more on that in this letter from Sandia National Lab;
4) Allow our government to engage in new forms of censorship;
5) Give comfort (and know-how) to regimes abroad that are seeking to use censorship to stymie democracy and political unrest.

I'm going to be serving as a press contact and can be reached at David@DemandProgress.org and (401) 499-5991. Also feel free to get in touch with general questions about the week ahead.

Thanks so much for taking on this fight -- we can absolutely still win if we keep working together and mobilize our membership and user bases like never before. It'll go down in history, and leave a lasting infrastructure that we can use to fight back against future attacks on the web. If you want some quick inspiration and a sense of how far we've come, check out this great Slate piece on the rise of the "Geek Lobby".

David Segal
Demand Progress

Olbermann And Wyden To Talk Internet Censorship Tonight- Breaking Cable News' Silence On The Subject

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 29, 2011 · 1:45 PM PST

2011/11/29 · 13:45

There's been a conspicuous absence of cable news coverage of the pending Internet censorship bills. (Likely a function of the media conglomerates' general support for the legislation.)

Tonight Keith Olbermann's going to pick up the slack, hosting Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to talk about his expected filibuster of the the PROTECT IP Act. He's expected to be on at about 8:45 Eastern Time. Please check it out -- both to learn more about this important issue, and because we want to encourage Olbermann to lead the charge on this issue.

Quick recap: The PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act are being pushed by the Chamber of Commerce, Hollywood and the record industry, Big Pharma, and so on. They'd give the government sweeping new powers to censor the net, make it a felony to stream unlicensed content (written so broadly that they'd catch karaoke videos), and perhaps most disturbingly: They'd make it impossible for most sites with user-generated content (i.e. everything that makes the Internet fun and interesting and democratic) to stay in business by giving sites' owners new liabilities over everything their users upload or write.

Opposition and support are both bipartisan, with corporatists generally supporting and right- and left- ideologues more likely to oppose. Though there are many generally progressive Dems -- Leahy, Franken, etc -- who are on the wrong side of the legislation.

If PIPA makes it to the floor, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) will filibuster -- and he'll do it by reading the names rank-and-file Americans who oppose censorship from the floor of the Senate. You can ask to have your name read -- and ask your Senators to vote no -- by visiting StopCensorship.org. More than 120,000 people have already signed up.

Senator Wyden just issued this new statement on the fight against Internet censorship, and you can check out his call-to-arms video below and at StopCensorship.org

The filibuster affords senators an opportunity to stand up for what they believe in and there are few things I believe in more than ensuring that every American has a voice and an opportunity to get ahead.
Right now, the Internet gives every American that voice while making it possible for every entrepreneur, thinker and innovator to compete alongside the biggest and most moneyed interests.

It is my hope that -- with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that a free and open Internet is something that we as Americans should celebrate and not allow those special moneyed interests to quash.

It is my hope that – with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that PIPA/SOPA are the wrong way to protect intellectual property because the price they exact on the Internet is too high.

With your help, I believe we can get that word out and prevent these misguided bills from every reaching the House and Senate floor, but if they do reach the floor you can count on me to stand up and make our voices heard.

Wyden Will Filibuster The Destruction Of The Internet - And Read Your Name From Senate Floor

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 28, 2011 · 2:27 PM PST

2011/11/28 · 14:27

Kos just posted a great diary about the extraordinary danger that's presented by the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These bills could make it impossible for sites with user-generated content (i.e. everything that makes the Internet fun and interesting and democratic) to stay in business.

Please sign up -- The hope is that the uglier we make a prospective filibuster look, the less likely leadership will be to call for a vote before Christmas break. PIPA's already passed through Senate Judiciary, and the understanding is that Reid wants to push for a vote soon, so he can claim a bi-partisan victory on a (bogus) jobs bill.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would ruin so much of what's best about the Internet: They will give the government and corporations new powers to block Americans' access to sites that are accused of copyright infringement, force sites like YouTube to go to new lengths to police users' contributions, and put people in prison for streaming certain content online.

Senator Wyden just issued this new statement on the fight against Internet censorship, and you can check out his call-to-arms video below and at StopCensorship.org

The filibuster affords senators an opportunity to stand up for what they believe in and there are few things I believe in more than ensuring that every American has a voice and an opportunity to get ahead.
Right now, the Internet gives every American that voice while making it possible for every entrepreneur, thinker and innovator to compete alongside the biggest and most moneyed interests.

It is my hope that -- with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that a free and open Internet is something that we as Americans should celebrate and not allow those special moneyed interests to quash.

It is my hope that – with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that PIPA/SOPA are the wrong way to protect intellectual property because the price they exact on the Internet is too high.

With your help, I believe we can get that word out and prevent these misguided bills from every reaching the House and Senate floor, but if they do reach the floor you can count on me to stand up and make our voices heard.

Join Wyden's Censorship Filibuster: More Than 60k Have Asked For Their Names To Be Read From Senate

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 22, 2011 · 10:47 AM PST

2011/11/22 · 10:47

Senator Wyden's going to be reading names of censorship opponents from the floor of the Senate during his expected filibuster of the PROTECT IP Act. You can ask to have your name read -- and ask your Senators to vote no -- by visiting StopCensorship.org.

The hope is that the uglier we make a prospective filibuster look, the less likely it becomes that leadership will call for a vote before Christmas break. It's already passed through Senate Judiciary, and the understanding is that Reid wants to push for a vote soon, so he can claim a bi-partisan victory on a (bogus) jobs bill.

Senator Wyden just issued this new statement on the fight against Internet censorship, and you can check out his call-to-arms video below and at StopCensorship.org

The filibuster affords senators an opportunity to stand up for what they believe in and there are few things I believe in more than ensuring that every American has a voice and an opportunity to get ahead.
Right now, the Internet gives every American that voice while making it possible for every entrepreneur, thinker and innovator to compete alongside the biggest and most moneyed interests.

It is my hope that -- with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that a free and open Internet is something that we as Americans should celebrate and not allow those special moneyed interests to quash.

It is my hope that – with your help – my colleagues in Congress will realize that PIPA/SOPA are the wrong way to protect intellectual property because the price they exact on the Internet is too high.

With your help, I believe we can get that word out and prevent these misguided bills from every reaching the House and Senate floor, but if they do reach the floor you can count on me to stand up and make our voices heard.

Filibuster Censorship: Ask Senator Wyden To Read Your Name From Floor Of Senate

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 21, 2011 · 10:11 AM PST

2011/11/21 · 10:11

There's a good chance this legislation will pass – but Senator Ron Wyden is a steadfast opponent, and he says he'll try to block it by filibustering if it comes up for a vote.

Sometimes filibusters last hours – or days – leaving Senators reading out of the dictionary or cookbooks to pass the time. But we've got a better idea: Millions of Americans support Internet freedom. What better way to demonstrate our strength than to ask Senator Wyden to read our names into the record during his filibuster?

He's agreed to read many censorship opponents' names from the floor of the Senate, and to try to enter the rest into the Congressional Record.

Click here to visit StopCensorship.org, ask him to read your name, and send an anti-censorship email to your lawmakers.

And check out this new video of Wyden, imploring Americans to stand up for Internet freedom:

An Update From The Internet -- Before Crony Capitalism Shuts It Down

DavidSegal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 15, 2011 · 8:15 PM PST

2011/11/15 · 20:15

Demand Progress delivered 500k signatures in opposition to the Internet Blacklist Bill yesterday — at a press conference alongside Congresmembers Zoe Lofgren and Darrell Issa. (That’s our David Moon to the left of the podium.) The video is very dry -- we'll try to cut it up and make it more digestible soon.

The legislation gets heard today, but the hearing is stacked against us: five witnesses support the legislation; one (Google) opposes it. No civil liberties or human rights concerned non-profits will get to testify; nor will any groups representing grassroots Internet users.

Still, there reason for hope -- an there’s an unprecedented avalanche of opposition is snowballing among online advocacy groups tech companies, and rank-and-file Internet users.

Opponents object to provisions that would allow the government to block users’ access to websites accused of copyright infringement, jail users for uploading streamed content, and require social media sites and blogs to go to new lengths to police users’ contributions — threatening the very existence of sites like YouTube and Twitter.

A bipartisan group of tech-savvy lawmakers is circulating a letter in opposition to SOPA. And tech companies that stand to lose -- Twitter, Yahoo, and the like -- just launched a joint effort against the legislation. Last month Yahoo actually quit the Chamber of Commerce over the Chamber's support of the bill.

You can still email your lawmakers and ask them to oppose the legislation by clicking here.

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